Volunteer Position - Animal Health Research Advisor | AVSF - Senegal
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Animal Health Research Advisor | AVSF - Senegal

Vets Without Borders has an open Animal Health Research Advisor volunteer position at Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (AVSF) based in Vélingara, Senegal.

Download Volunteer Placement PDF

Volunteer Placement Details

Position Title: Animal Health Research Advisor

Country: Senegal

Location: Vélingara, Senegal

Partner Organization:Agronomes et Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (AVSF)

Duration: 4 months

Start Date: November 2022 (Negotiable) 

Pre-departure Training: VWB/VSF will provide training orientation.

Eligibility: Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents of Canada only

Language: French and English (essential), Pulaar and/or Wolof (desirable)

Academic Requirements: Degree in Veterinary Medicine or Social Science with strong background in animal health

Fundraising: VWB/VSF encourages each volunteer to raise funds towards the organization’s operations.

Volunteer Terms & Conditions 

VWB/VSF covers most of the costs of being an overseas volunteer, including:

  • Return airfare to placement country 
  • Visa/permit costs
  • The cost of required vaccinations, anti-malarial medication, and overseas emergency travel health insurance
  • A monthly living allowance (MLA) that will be paid into the volunteer’s bank account in Canada. The MLA is designed to be sufficient to cover simple housing, basic food requirements, and other typical monthly living expenses.

Volunteer Application: Animal Health Research Advisor, AVSF, Senegal

Our Commitment 

Veterinarians Without Borders/Vétérinaires sans Frontière is an equal opportunity employer and values the diversity of our team.

We are committed to inclusive and equitable employment practices and strive to create a workplace that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion. VWB/VSF Canada welcomes applications from all qualified candidates, including members of racialized groups, Indigenous peoples, women, persons with disabilities, and persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity.

Please let us know if you require an accommodation and we will work with you to ensure an equitable hiring process. Thank you for your interest in VWB/VSF Canada.
 
 

Overall Goal

The primary purpose of the Animal Health Research Advisor position is to research and compile the ethnoveterinary knowledge and practices by breeders in the department of Vélingara, Kolda Region, where the “Thiellal” project is located ("Health for All" in Pulaar).

Objectives

  •  Identify the traditional knowledge and practices in animal medicine, as well as the plants or substances used for each practice
  • Analyze their processes and their effects on animal health according to the perceptions of pastoralist communities.

All volunteers are expected to promote gender equality, environmental sustainability, and good governance within their placement responsibilities

Skills

Essential

  • Proven ability to coordinate projects within the nonprofit sector or similar field, in the area of gender equality and/or monitoring, evaluation and knowledge management
  • Strong analytical, synthesis and writing skills, as well as a strong adaptability to work in difficult local conditions
  • Experience in conducting field surveys and data collection
  • Strong background in statistics and research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative
  • Knowledge of ethnoveterinary practices is considered an asset
  • Effective intercultural communication skills
  • Commitment to the principles of voluntary cooperation and familiarity with participatory approaches to development, including the promotion of gender equality, good governance, and environmental sustainability

Desirable

  • Ability to work in the team and in the field
  • Previous international work/volunteer experience in Senegal or another developing country

About the Project: VETS

Volunteers Engaged in Gender Responsive Technical Solutions (VETS), funded through the Volunteer Cooperation Program at Global Affairs Canada, will engage 190 volunteers to work with local partner organizations in Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

Volunteers will help create integrated animal health systems to increase the livelihoods and household nutrition of small-scale farmers. The VETS program utilizes the skills of volunteers to build local partner capacity to support community members, primarily women, to reduce poverty. Through improved production of livestock and crops, volunteers help improve family income and nutrition.

The VETS program is built around the One Health concept, which recognizes that the health of people, animals, and the natural environment are interconnected. This project promotes the production of more and better food and increased incomes from livestock, all the while promoting land rehabilitation and conservation for sustainable development.

Learn More About The VETS Project

About Veterinarians Without Borders

In the global south, more than 90 percent of food animals are raised by subsistence farmers. However, small-scale livestock producers, the majority of whom are women, have very limited access to quality and affordable animal health services.

Aside from the risks associated with the loss of valuable livestock that provides important protein and/or income for low-income households, zoonotic diseases that can be passed from animals to humans offer a very real threat to human health on a wider scale.

Veterinarians Without Borders/Vétérinaires sans frontières (VWB/VSF) works for and with communities in need to foster the health of animals, people, and the environments that sustain us. VWB/VSF works nationally and internationally to train animal health workers, increase food security, and improve animal and public health.

VWB/VSF provides overseas volunteer placements for veterinarians and other animal and public health professionals.

Learn More About VWB

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  • My voluntary assignments in Ghana for the past three years have dramatically improved animal production in terms of reducing mortality and increasing the size of the herd/flock.
    - Joseph Ansong-Danquah

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